Shower Head Holder - Replace Chipped Holster With Better Shape

I don't imagine there are many of these showerhead holders still out there, but if you've got one and it's damaged and you want to try to repair it, try this!

I think ours fitted the original tubing ok when we first had the shower fitted about 30 years ago! But when the tubing inevitably needed replacing, I found that the newer tube ends were somewhat bigger, and they didn't sit down properly in the holster. Also, the tubing itself is designed slightly larger these days, so the entry slot on the old holster is too narrow and the pipe was hard to fit through the opening. The holster itself didn't have any taper to the hole, so while that meant it was “reversible” so you could turn it around and use the other edges to grip the tube end, neither end was actually a satisfactory fit :o)

So when the old holster got so chipped at the edges (see pic), I had a go at sketching the shape, and making a replacement. This time with a suitable taper in the hole for modern tubes, and the correct size tube slot entry.

It's not a nice shape to print in a way that would allow for the print layers to be arranged for the strongest arms - to get a nice finish it has to be printed with the holster arms pointing upwards, which means the tapered end of the tubing will be trying to split apart the printed layers. So with that in mind, I designed a couple of holes each side running up into the arms, and then took the pins out of 4 rivets and hacksawed their end-blobs off, put glue on them and pushed them into the holes using another rivet pin to push them fully in. 

It's a fair bit of effort to avoid spending a tenner on a complete replacement holder, BUT everything else in the shower set has become a sort of beige colour, the ultimate destiny of all household white goods, hahaha, and Elegoo's “beige” PLA+ happens to be exactly the right colour, so the print has turned out super! 

You'll need a fairly dense support of 30% Zigzag “touching buildplate” to support the base inset, and I used 25% infill triangles for the body. To get a nice clean collar, I designed that as a separate ring to be added with a smear of glue and clicked into place on the bottom - it's a pretty snug fit. 

All the other parts of the assembly could be taken apart and descaled and cleaned up, so it's almost as good as new on the rest of it, and a far better fit for modern tubes too. If you find the showerhead rotates at all in use, get a little bit of clear silicone sealant and smear it on the insides of the gripper arms, pop the showerhead in place and leave to cure. You will still easily be able to get the showerhead out but the silicone will substantially increase friction between the showerhead tube and the holder.

Good luck repairing :o)